THE PRINCE WITH THE GOLDEN HAND 219

flagon, and the pin-cushion, and, after bidding farewell to old
Yaga and her two pretty daughters, mounted his steed and
rode off, following the pin-cushion, which rolled before him
at a great rate.

Now a beautiful story is soon told, but the events of
which it consists do not in real life take place so rapidly.

When the prince had travelled through two kingdoms,
he came to a land in which lay a very beautiful valley that
stretched into the far distance, and above it towered the
mountain that touches the sky. The summit was so high
above the earth you might almost fancy it reached the moon.

The prince dismounted, left his horse to graze, and having
crossed himself began to follow the pin-cushion up steep and
rocky paths. When he had got half-way there the north wind
began to blow, and the cold was so intense that the wood of
the trees split up and the breath froze: he felt chilled to the
heart. But he quickly put on the heat-giving hood, and
cried :

“O Heat-Giving Hood, see I fly now to thee,
Lend me quickly thine aid ;
O hasten to warm ere the cold has killed me,
With thee I’m not afraid.”

The northern blast blew with redoubled fury, but to no
purpose. For the prince was so hot that he streamed with
perspiration, and indeed was obliged to unbutton his coat and
fan himself.

Here the pin-cushion stopped upon a small snow-covered
mound. ‘The prince cleared away the snow, beneath which lay
the frozen bodies of two young men, and he knew them to be
those of his lost brothers. Having knelt beside them and